Spots
by SuperGota
Summary: Slight AU. Madara Uchiha is reincarnated in the body of Naruto Uzumaki with all his memories, awakening during the sealing of the Nine-Tails. How will the world deal with the return of this nightmare from an era of fire and blood? Though he begins again as a mere infant, his very presence shall change everything, for better or worse. War is on the horizon...
1. Discordant Spots

**Chapter 1 – Discordant Spots**

The freezing touch of the Death God electrified his newborn soul in a cacophony of euphoric pain. Memories of a life long past flashed before him like a tidal wave of crushing emotions.

"_Nii-sama…don't grieve for me…I can be your light now…" A vague man-like shape promised while dying in his arms, holding up two bloody round balls of flesh to him like an offering to a deity._

He screamed silently into the night with wide unseeing eyes. His senses were an incomprehensible storm and his mind was a song of screeching colors and spots of empty night.

"_The longer you live the more you realize reality is just made of pain, suffering, and emptiness…Listen...In this world, whenever there is light, there are also shadows!" His own raspy virile voice rang out in the candlelit cave and the shadows swayed in the darkness as if dancing to the illustrious Truth._

His spirit heaved and groaned as black ether burst forth from the cocoon of the baby soul. An august form emerged, filled with the peerless force of transcendent Yin.

In that moment, his vision cleared and all his senses came into harmony to bring him the perception of the material world once more.

But just as soon he grasped on to the realization that he was somehow _alive _again, blazing pain blasted through him as a fiery red chakra tore into his body drowning him in an ocean of mighty Yang. At his navel a searing heat etched arcane symbols that bound the Yang to him with the unbreakable form of the Eight Trigrams.

Deep within the mental location of the chakra war, a tall man with long black hair in traditional clan era shinobi armor stood with his forearms covering his face against the torrent of chakra buffeting him. Majestic black bars held back the titanic form of the Nine-Tailed fox in a cage.

The beast roared with insane fury as the sight of the man before it, calling all of its considerably diminished powers to bear. When the Nine-Tails had recognized the plan of the blond man to seal him and lost his other half to the Death God, he thought he would have to bide his time to influence his new host to eventually give him freedom. But upon his entry into his vessel, he was shocked by the familiar chakra of the monster in human skin who had enslaved him long ago. His rage overtook him and he railed against his cruel fate.

"Nine-Tails! You are just an unstable coalescence of energy that was once a single, ultimate form! A being without sapience like you requires a guide to show you purpose, as I did so long ago! Recognize the futility of your resistance, and acknowledge me as your master, for the tailed beasts are nothing but slaves to those with blessed eyes! Obey!" The man shouted vehemently with a mad grin as he pulled his arms back to reveal his deathly obsidian eyes and surged his dark chakra forth.

The Nine-Tails eyes gleamed with panic as he shook his head vigorously and let out an unearthly wail of despair as the chakra covered him in the shroud of endless darkness.

"NO!" he roared, as he slumped down, defeated, submitting to his fate as he cursed his father for giving the damned Uchiha this unholy power. It wasn't fair! He was the Nine-Tails, the greatest of the tailed beasts, a being of such majesty that no puny human could even hope to compare. He was a force of nature, immortal and wise, yet this scum dared to claim that he was a mindless beast that needed a _guide_.

Wait a minute.

Wasn't he supposed to actually be a mindless beast now after succumbing to the control of the Sharingan?

He gathered his wits and chakra and exploded with the realization that the Uchiha had _failed_ to control him!

The man lost his grin as he realized too that his technique didn't work, and the familiar power in his eyes was torturously missing.

"Madara Uchiha! Where are your _blessed eyes_ now, huh? You are just an insect without your precious Sharingan! Not worthy of guiding anything, let alone the mightiest of the Tailed-Beasts!" The Nine-Tails insulted gleefully with manic bloodshot eyes.

Now it was Madara's turn to roar with insane rage as he cursed the cruelty of fate to give him another chance at life only to rob him of his greatest treasure.

"This changes nothing! Learn your place, Nine-Tails!" He bellowed even while his rage gave way to calm analysis of the situation as he rapidly processed all the information he had gathered from his physical and chakra senses earlier.

Yin and Yang fought in a vicious whirl as a deadly miasma leaked out from every pore of the baby's body.

"What's happening? Did something go wrong?" A woman's voice cried out, even as her life force was quickly disappearing.

"I don't," a man in robes that prominently declared his status as the Fourth Hokage forced out between heavy breaths, paralyzed by the weight of the Nine-Tails' Yin chakra and the Death God's hold,"…know. The seal is…unstable…" He tried to pour more chakra into the seal, but it had little effect.

"Then I'll help!" The woman struggled forward on the ground to touch the baby and concentrated, creating ethereal chains of pure chakra which she sent into the baby's body.

"Kushina…wait! You have to save some chakra for me to seal inside Naruto!" The fourth Hokage warned before gritting his teeth as he felt his soul slipping away to the Death God.

"Minato, you idiot! What use is meeting me years in the future if Naruto won't survive today! This is all your fault! You should have let me seal the Nine-Tails back into myself!" Kushina cried helplessly, thinking of the pain her baby would go through as an orphan.

Minato gasped as the Death God wrenched one last time, and he whispered in despair, "Sorry, Kushina…I love you, Naruto," before his body slumped down to the ground lifelessly.

Kushina's tears fell on Naruto's whisker birthmarks as she stared painfully at the wide blue eyes which stared back with an eerie intelligence. "Oh Naruto...I am so sorry you have to carry this burden…the Nine-Tails' hatred is a terrible thing, but you can fight it with love…so make sure you make friends…you don't have to make a lot, just a few that you can really trust..!" She closed her eyes with the herculean effort of speaking and suppressing the Nine-Tails' chakra at the same time. "And as for women, I'm…a woman…so I don't really understand, but…anyway…there are only men and women…so you will find yourself interested…just don't fall for a weird one! Find…a woman like your mom…!"

The spirit within the body of Naruto completely grasped the situation. Somehow, he had been reincarnated inside the baby of the fourth Hokage of Konoha and an Uzumaki. He now had the blood of the younger brother flowing through him, rather than the elder. To top it off, his new mother was the former jinchuuriki of his weapon, and it must have gotten loose when somebody —his student, no doubt — took advantage of the seal's weakness during pregnancy.

The situation was horrifically ironic, given the plans he had instructed his student to follow. However, it was still salvageable…perhaps even a blessing. Although he had no Sharingan, and he could no longer be revived in his true form as planned, he was nonetheless alive again, and still possessed his deadly trademark chakra. Indeed…his chakra could now be considered a combination of Uchiha and Senju…so perhaps there would be opportunity to pursue different avenues to reach his ultimate goal.

He felt deep inside himself for the distinct chakra of the new body. Using his Sharingan memories of Mito Uzumaki, and the sensations his new mother was producing, he called forth the Sage's secret technique.

Inside his mindscape, Madara started to rapidly form hand seals as he mixed his unique Uchiha chakra with the Uzumaki chakra of the baby body, ending on the Snake seal.

Pure white chakra burst out from Madara's mental body and from every wall. With a wild grasping gesture, Madara commanded the chains to converge upon the form of the Nine-Tails, who was stunned by this new turn of events. The fox struggled with all his might, but all he could do was to stare incredulously as the chains started to absorb his chakra, which not even his former host Kushina could do.

The metallic bars that formed the Nine-Tails' Cage dissolved into shining dust. Madara's body began to glow, with powerful chakra flowing through the chains from the Nine-Tails to cover him in a shroud with six magatama markings around his neck and the design of his Eternal Mangekyou appearing on his stomach. Various seal markings appeared through the length of his chest and arms when he shifted to the Ram seal and gigantic Torii fell and trapped the Nine-Tails.

"It can't be…Rikudo?" The Nine-Tails uttered in shock as he witnessed the transformation of his cage.

"It seems I was wrong, Nine-Tails. You don't need a guide. You can just be my battery instead," Madara laughed as he put his hands on his hips.

"Damn you! I will not forget this…!" The fox growled.

On the outside world, the toxic miasma receded and Naruto's body glowed with a heavenly light. Upon seeing this, Kushina stopped the flow of her chakra to Naruto and smiled reverently. "That's my boy! You'll make me proud someday…I wish I could be there…there's so many things to teach you…you'll face many hard times ahead, but just be yourself and follow your dreams…I love you…" With a contented smile, the vitality of the Uzumaki finally left her as she closed her eyes for the last time.

Young Naruto stared unblinkingly at the corpse that was his mother. Inexplicably, a tear fell down his face, but he didn't notice, too busy weaving plans within plans to take advantage of the opportunity he now had.

Yes…the world would tremble before him once more, and he would deliver its salvation. He was the savior, the one would bring heaven to earth and end this hellish nightmare of endless hatred.

There could be no doubt — it must be his destiny, for if not, why else was he reborn in this god-forsaken land?


	2. Budding Spots

**Chapter 2 — Budding Spots**

Fwoosh. The sound of metal sliding — years of battled-hardened instinct kicked in as every muscle aligned, prepared to —

_I've been paralyzed! NO! _He mentally screamed in outrage, bracing himself for the inevitable blade to descend upon him, pulling deep within to call his trusted guardian spirit —

"It is good to see you again Jiraiya, though I wish it were under better circumstances…" The voice of the Third broke him out of his panic.

And he realized he had merely been a victim of sleep paralysis. Such weakness was not the plight of trained ninja, yet in this new body it was to be expected.

"I came as fast as I could, sensei. Damn! How could this have happened?" Jiraiya asked with shaking fists. He was a tall man with long white hair wearing a red haori. He bore an enormous scroll on his back. On his forehead was a unique headband with the script for Oil. He had entered through the window, and that was the source of the earlier sound. Impressively, the man had landed silently on the ground despite wearing traditional wooden geta instead of noise-cancelling ninja sandals.

"So you're taking up the hat again?" He glanced about the office, lingering on Naruto, who lay peacefully in a red crib beside the Hokage's desk, standing in contrast to the bland colors of the office.

"Yes, the village needs me at such a critical time, and these old bones can only oblige while there's still life left," said Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. A little over two years ago he had passed the mantle of the Fire Shadow to Minato Namikaze, the student of his student Jiraiya. But with the sudden death of his successor, he stepped up again during the emergency council with the approval of the assembled jounin. With a sigh, he pulled the empty pipe from his mouth. Although he could not smoke with young Naruto nearby, the very motions gave him some sense of familiar peace. "I would have gladly stood aside for Orochimaru if only my concerns diminished these past two years, but I fear he has gotten worse…I can only hope his latest disappearance act at such an inopportune time was not deliberate…"

"No way…he's a selfish bastard alright, but he wouldn't just abandon the village like that, right?" Jiraiya defended his friend and teammate with a forced smile. That guy had given him the creeps every time they met in the last few months. Not that he'd ever been normal, but to Jiraiya he'd seemed creepier than usual, if that was even possible.

With nothing better to do, Madara simply listened. There was a gap in his knowledge of world affairs between the time of his death and his rebirth, and the first step to filling that gap was to identify just how large it was. He had been alive when Minato Namikaze had been chosen to be the Fourth Hokage over Orochimaru of the Sannin. From the words of the Third, he assumed that must have been two years ago, and calculated that it had been mere months since his death. Despite the surprisingly short length of time that had passed, already he could see that reality was diverging from his plan. Whether by incompetence or treachery, his agent had failed vital tasks, and not even his little failsafe had done any good. But then again, he had prepared many backup plans, so it was nothing to worry about. Indeed, his resurrection made them most of them irrelevant now, for he had new means to achieve his ends…

"I suppose not." At that, the wizened old man stood up and walked over to the crib to pick Madara up. "Jiraiya, I asked you to come so you could check on the seal on Minato's son. I'm not quite as good as you with the Sealing Arts…"

"Of course, sensei. Actually, I received something from the toads earlier — seems like a key of sorts that Minato sent to them for safekeeping," said Jiraya while performing five rapid hand seals. "Summoning: Gerotora!"

"Hiya!" A black and orange toad wearing a freakishly long obi poofed out.

"Gerotora, I need to examine the seal for a moment to make sure it's safe," said Jiraya.

"You got it!" Then the toad suddenly popped up and his "obi" was revealed to be some sort of mechanism hiding a huge scroll which unfurled itself.

Jiraiya then channeled chakra to his hand and touched it to Naruto's stomach. Naruto's eyes followed his movements like a hawk, which, combined with silence atypical of most babies, slightly unnerved the older man. A seal pattern appeared on Naruto's navel area.

"Hm…" the toad summoner's eyes moved to the key scroll. "That's strange…this can't be right."

"What's wrong?" the Third asked with a frown.

"I don't recognize the seal on Naruto, and it doesn't match the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style that forms the key," said Jiraya. He touched his forefinger to his head while closing his eyes in thought.

"His name is Naruto, then? For a while, I was afraid that we would never know what his parents intended," Hiruzen said with a chuckle. "How did you know?"

"Oh yeah! Minato named him after the character in my book, so I'm his godfather," said Jiraiya proudly with a smile as he turned to face his teacher.

"Your book? I didn't know Minato was into that…though I guess he and Kushina made good use of it…" Hiruzen mused with a raised eyebrow, "…though I don't recall the character…"

"Not Icha Icha!" Jiraiya shouted with a red face, thoroughly scandalized, "Tales of a Gutsy Ninja! My first book."

"Oh, of course, of course. Now, what was it you were saying about the seal?"

"I have no idea what this seal is or what it does, although it seems to be working fine. But I can't make any sense out of the fact that the key doesn't fit," said Jiraiya.

"I do remember hearing Minato saying that he would use the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style while they were trapped in the barrier he set up, but something went wrong after the sealing. Visible chakra was leaking out of Naruto here, and Kushina did something to stop it," said Hiruzen. "Perhaps she changed the seal?"

"That could explain it. But we will have to monitor him closely for any problems." Jiraiya decided as Gerotora poofed away. He reached out to take hold of Naruto from Hiruzen and began rocking. Madara stared into his eyes as if to challenge him.

"Are you going to take him with you, as the godfather?" Hiruzen asked.

"I wish I could. He won't be safe travelling with me…the Leaf needs me more than ever now. And he needs a proper childhood inside this village…" Naruto's godfather murmured sadly.

"But people will…_talk_… if he is adopted…he will have to go to an orphanage." the Hokage tilted his veiled cone hat down as if to cover his face.

Jiraiya gasped. "No…there must be something we can do…we can't let their son grow up an orphan!" But he recognized that the child's heritage and status would certainly be leaked by rumors if he were to be adopted.

_Fool…Jinchuuriki don't need childhoods, they need protection. We are made for war, not happiness! _Madara thought. There was a reason Jinchuuriki were known as the Power of Human Sacrifice. They were naïve like Hashirama, but didn't even have the power to afford such weakness.

The Third Hokage stayed silent. _Long ago, Hashirama Senju saw that the tailed beasts were too powerful to be exclusively hoarded by one village and so distributed them to maintain peace across the Shinobi Nations…at such a tumultuous time of war and political instability, I must follow his example and avoid tipping the scales toward any single clan within the village, _he thought.

O O O

The Third Hokage stood carrying the baby Naruto wrapped in with a team of ANBU ninja behind him. In front of him was the entrance of an isolated rectangular building. They were on the outskirts of Konoha. A sign on the front read "Konoha Orphanage". The door opened to reveal a woman with a white headcovering over her light brown hair. She was dressed in purple robes and wore circular spectacles.

"Please take care of this child for the next few years. His name is Naruto…Uzumaki," said Hiruzen as he walked up and delivered his package to the woman.

The woman reluctantly accepted the infant. "But Sandaime-sama…our orphanage is poor and we don't have the funds to raise another child, let alone an infant child…"

"Do not worry. I will give you all the ryou you need and more. Do this for me and your orphanage shall never be lacking in funds again. Please, Yakushi-san." The old man took off his hat to hold to his chest and bowed slightly.

"S-Sandaime-sama," Yakushi moved one hand forward to hold the Hokage by the arm, pushing him up to stop bowing. "Your lordship need not bow to one such as I, of course we will take care of him. Thank for your assistance to our orphanage," she said. "May I ask…who is this child that you would go to such lengths…?"

The Fire Shadow smiled mysteriously and put his hat back on. Turning around, he started to walk away. "He is…a very special child...a hero of the Leaf."

Nobody caught the dark look that flitted momentarily across the face of the exalted leader. Only he knew the risk of the unknown seal, and he could not allow the Nine-Tails to reappear closer to the village proper.

_Forgive me, dear children…_

In that instant, the Hokage disappeared with his ninja subordinates.

O O O

It was nighttime at the Konoha Orphanage under the silent watch of the hidden ANBU in the trees.

"Kabuto, isn't he a weird baby? He's so quiet," a boy wearing a bowl hat whispered while slapping his glasses-wearing friend on the back. Madara stared out of his fortunately very tall crib at the two orphans. By his estimate, they could be no older than eight. It was inevitable that he would have to deal with such annoyances in his pathetic state, but perhaps he could make use of them…

"I think…he understands us, Urushi," the one called Kabuto responded quietly. Madara's eyes locked onto his own at that remark.

"What? Don't be stupid! He's just a baby, and babies don't know anything," said Urushi.

As the two left to return to their futons, a silent shadow bulged in the ground beneath the crib, revealing the upper torso of a creature of white and black, the colors split evenly down the middle of its body. It had green hair and golden yellow eyes.

A raspy voice floated up, "Madara-sama…"

"…" A tendril of black substance stretched out from the creature's body and found its way to baby Naruto.

"Understood…" The shadowy tendril retreated, and the creature slowly descended back down into the ground, leaving no trace of its former presence.

Another bulge appeared several minutes later and from the ground emerged a white creature in the shape of a man, reminiscent of the white half of the earlier creature. In his hand was a large syringe.

Chakra chains erupted from baby Naruto's body and wrapped around the creature's neck and arms. The chains seemingly pulled up Naruto's body and he hung upon the white creature's chest.

_Yin Yang Release: Living Shadow Symbiotic Puppetry!_

Similar to his _Will Materialisation Technique_, his chakra flooded into the White Zetsu and began to cover its body in a black substance. However, the substance receded into the skin of the Zetsu body until it could no longer be seen, while the body itself transformed into a perfect and youthful replica of Madara Uchiha's body in his former life. The chains released themselves from the Zetsu body and quickly wrapped around the edges of the crib, lowering Naruto back onto the cloth cushion. Shortly after, Naruto closed his eyes as if falling asleep.

Meanwhile, Madara flexed the muscles of his new Zetsu DNA-clone body and smirked. With his true body no longer forced to stay within that cave in no man's land, he could take a more active role with this Jutsu, at least in the vicinity of the village.

Although Zetsu was but a failed experiment, he had managed to find many interesting uses for it over the years…

'_Zetsu lives to serve, my Lord!' _A shrill voice budged in. If only it were less annoying…

But now, it was time to take advantage of his_ successful_ experiment — yellow eyes gleamed as he lifted up the syringe and plunged its tip into the infant's neck.

The heavens blessed him with rebirth in a very special Uzumaki body, of a powerful pedigree and significant heritage. He would make good use of it.

O O O

"So soon after the war with Hidden Rock, we are struck by such a disaster…this would be an excellent time for our enemies to strike," said Koharu Utatane, elder of the Konoha Council and decades-long advisor to her former teammate, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Among the older ninja of the village, she was known as _The Twilight_, for her exceptional ability to perceive weaknesses, which in war had translated to numerous well-timed assaults under her command heralding the demise of the Leaf's enemies.

The elders were in the residence of the Third Fire Shadow, sitting in the couches of what they called _The Meeting Room_, for the countless times they met here during the long reign of the Third. A retainer of the Sarutobi clan brought in noble Sencha tea to the table that lay between them.

"The village will be especially vulnerable three days from now when we travel to Hijokyo to meet the Daimyo and confirm your reinstatement as Hokage," said Danzo Shimura. Also a former teammate of Hiruzen back when they under the tutelage of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, Danzo was recognized as a powerful ninja despite severe permanent injuries to the right side of his head and face, including his eye, all of which was covered in bandages. He was widely known as _The Darkness_, for his leadership of ROOT. ROOT was a special division of ninja that performed the most secret and politically questionable missions. They were very similar to the ANBU, who are commanded directly by the Hokage.

In a military village like the Leaf, one might be tempted to claim that all ninja fell under the direct command of the Hokage, but in practice this was not always the case. Although all ninja were required to swear allegiance to the village, they operated within what was essentially a mercenary system and ninja who did not belong to a specialized organization were largely free to take missions given by the Leaf's clients at their own leisure, at least in times of peace. These ninja could be considered the "regular forces". They receive payment for each individual mission completed, whereas ANBU were paid salaries for being constantly on duty plus mission rewards. In theory, the mission office could conscript any ninja into missions, but in most cases, the Hokage would direct his ANBU or call on ROOT to perform the strategically significant or time-sensitive missions for the village. In times of war however, there was little functional difference between ANBU and the regular forces.

Danzo continued. "Yet it is unlikely that we could fall under attack so quickly. It would take some time for an enemy army to arrive. Unless the enemy comes from within…"

"Are you suggesting that there may be a coup d'état while we are away?" asked Homura Mitokado, the last elder of the council, and yet another former member of Team Tobirama. Among the jounin of the Leaf, he was the most popular elder. Known as _The Hammer_, he was well respected for his efficiency and prudence in all ninja affairs as the foremost authority on ninja protocol and methods — the author of the Konoha Ninja Handbook.

"If the Uchiha were responsible for the Nine-Tails' attack, then that would be a logical next move," said Danzo. Homura and Koharu both frowned.

Hiruzen took a sip of tea. "Don't be hasty. There is nothing to suggest that they were at fault other than the Sharingan's ability to control tailed beasts," he said.

"My ninja report suspicious movements within their clan compound. Large numbers of Uchiha have been congregating during the night, as if holding clandestine meetings." Danzo countered.

"Have you been spying on them? If they find out, that will only fan the flames! You must stop immediately." Hiruzen glared at the ruthless warhawk.

"Danzo has a point however, we must prepare some defensive measures just in case," said Homura.

"It is unnecessary that we all attend the Daimyo's council, just enough to present a united front. We can leave in secret and have Danzo stay here with ROOT on alert. If anything does happen, that should give us enough time to return and join the fight," Koharu suggested.

Hiruzen sighed. "Very well, I approve of this plan."

"Then let us return to the topic of foreign relations," said Koharu. "We are still at war with the Hidden Cloud, and our treaty with the Hidden Rock is hardly worth the paper it's written on. We must show them that despite the loss of Minato, we remain the strongest village."

"We are in no position for an offensive campaign right now. All we can do is maintain our mission volume, or perhaps revoke our long-standing policy of secrecy with regards to our jinchuuriki, making it appear as though we gained a tailed beast in exchange," said Homura.

"That is not acceptable. I want Naruto to have a normal childhood at least, for all that he and his family have sacrificed," said Hiruzen.

"We can hardly stop the rumors from spreading in Konoha, given the number of ninja that witnessed the sealing with us," said Homura.

"Perhaps, but they will forget. I have sent him to an orphanage isolated from the rest of the village for the time being. Few would recognize him when he returns to the village to enter the Academy," said Hiruzen.

"If that is all you are concerned about, we can simply claim that the beast was sealed into a powerful ninja whose identity is secret," Koharu said, always the one to offer solutions.

"I disagree. The other villages have no doubt suspected our possession of the Nine-Tails since the battle at the Valley of the End. We will appear desperate if we reveal our hand. Rather, let us assert that Fourth killed the Nine-Tails permanently," said Danzo. "Then I will train the jinchuuriki in secret so that none will recognize him when he is deployed in battle."

"I agree with the first part of your suggestion, Danzo, but Naruto _will_ have a normal childhood," said Hiruzen. Danzo grit his teeth in response.

Koharu nodded her acknowledgement of the Hokage's decision. "And what of Tsunade? She has been away for…"

O O O

Fugaku Uchiha, leader of the Uchiha clan stood watching his clansmen walking away after another heated discussion in the secrecy of the underground chamber of the Naka Shrine. The latest episode in the Leaf's oppression of the Uchiha came in the form of preventing them from joining the fight against the Nine-Tails, for fears that they were the ones responsible and would control the fox to do even more damage. Of course, they were not responsible…they have no reason to devastate the village they belonged to, but perhaps they ought to rethink their allegiances. Everything had progressed exactly as their great ancestor Madara Uchiha had warned: First the Uchiha were shut out of the village leadership, then they were physically isolated, and finally they were put under heavy surveillance. Tobirama Senju had claimed that the role of Military Police was given to the Uchiha as an honor, because only strong ninja could hope to police a ninja village. But the move was obviously meant to create a rift between the rest of the village and the clan, while giving the village leadership an excuse to control and monitor their actions.

Now with the Nine-Tails attack and the barring of the Uchiha from participation in battle, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the Senju puppets in control of the village were using any pathetic excuse possible to strike at the Uchiha. The rest of the village would see their lack of participation as suspicious, cementing the rift and ostracizing them — removing any chance at reclaiming political power for years.

But Fugaku was praised as the most intelligent Uchiha in the generation, and he would not just stand by as the Uchiha are stripped of their pride and power. Over the years, the clan had begun to see the truth of their ancestor's warnings. Beginning with Setsuna Uchiha's plots, they had begun making moves to retake their rightful place as the legitimate rulers of Konoha.

One such move used their power as the Military Police: they slowly and subtly destroyed their less influential political enemies, especially the weak remaining Senju — those who had not intermarried with the other clans and kept their clan name even after Garuma Senju officially disbanded the clan organization. Although naïve observers might suggest that the Senju could not possibly be the oppressive power-hungry bastards the Uchiha knew them to be because they disbanded their own clan, the reality was that it was just a clever move to permanently spread their ideology and influence into every clan they married into. Unlike the Uchiha, the Senju could afford to dilute their blood because they had no distinct Bloodline Limit ability like the Sharingan, aside from the legendary Wood Release of the First Hokage which had proven unique to him.

But as recent events have shown, it may be necessary to take more drastic action…

"The Uchiha will rise again, Fugaku, I will make sure of it," a deep voice reached him from behind.

Fugaku turned around at the speed of sound and tensed, for none but an Uchiha should be capable of entering this place, and he watched all of the Uchiha leave just now.

His eyes widened in shock as he witnessed an ancient relic emerge from the shadow of the Tablet.

"D-does this mean…?" Fugaku said in a shaky voice, Sharingan activated, revealing the familiar blend of Uchiha and Senju chakra in the man before him. There were slight differences, but that was to be expected of his ancestor, always experimenting and advancing himself.

"Don't look so surprised…one of my side projects succeeded in reviving me, but I have now only a tiny fraction of my true power. The process required a great sacrifice, including my Sharingan. It shall be over a decade before I can fully regain my former strength," said the form of Madara Uchiha in traditional Uchiha blue robes. At his words, Fugaku was drawn to the obsidian eyes that strikingly lacked the Sharingan his ancestor was so fond of holding activated.

Then Fugaku regained his composure and smiled. "Though unexpected, your early return should be an immense help to our cause."

"Indeed…that is precisely why I came to speak with you. That I am here now changes everything. To begin with…it seems my primary agent has betrayed me or failed me, unleashing the Nine-Tails where I had asked for its capture. Fortunately I had many backups such as this to counter his treachery. In any case, he is no longer trustworthy or useful. Instead, this is what we shall do to reclaim our rightful place as the masters of this land…"

Long into the night, the two leaders plotted their majestic clan's rise to power.


End file.
